unspeakable

Also found in: Thesaurus, Wikipedia.

un·speak·a·ble

(ŭn-spē′kə-bəl)

adj.

1. Beyond description; inexpressible: unspeakable happiness.

2. Inexpressibly bad or objectionable: unspeakable poverty.

3. Not to be spoken: unspeakable thoughts.

un·speak′a·ble·ness n.

un·speak′a·bly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

unspeakable

(ʌnˈspiːkəbəl)

adj

1. incapable of expression in words: unspeakable ecstasy.

2. indescribably bad or evil

3. not to be uttered: unspeakable thoughts.

unˈspeakableness n

unˈspeakably adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

un•speak•a•ble

(ʌnˈspi kə bəl)

adj.

1. not speakable; not able or allowed to be spoken.

2. exceeding the power of speech; inexpressible; indescribable.

3. inexpressibly bad or objectionable.

[1350–1400]

un•speak′a•ble•ness, n.

un•speak′a•bly, adv.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Adj.	1.	unspeakable - defying expression or description; "indefinable yearnings"; "indescribable beauty"; "ineffable ecstasy"; "inexpressible anguish"; "unspeakable happiness"; "unutterable contempt"; "a thing of untellable splendor" indescribable, ineffable, untellable, unutterable, indefinable inexpressible, unexpressible - defying expression
	2.	unspeakable - exceptionally bad or displeasing; "atrocious taste"; "abominable workmanship"; "an awful voice"; "dreadful manners"; "a painful performance"; "terrible handwriting"; "an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room" awful, dreadful, abominable, atrocious, terrible, painful bad - having undesirable or negative qualities; "a bad report card"; "his sloppy appearance made a bad impression"; "a bad little boy"; "clothes in bad shape"; "a bad cut"; "bad luck"; "the news was very bad"; "the reviews were bad"; "the pay is bad"; "it was a bad light for reading"; "the movie was a bad choice"
	3.	unspeakable - too sacred to be uttered; "the ineffable name of the Deity" unnameable, unutterable, ineffable sacred - concerned with religion or religious purposes; "sacred texts"; "sacred rites"; "sacred music"

unspeakable

adjective dreadful, shocking, appalling, evil, awful, overwhelming, horrible, unbelievable, monstrous, from hell (informal), inconceivable, unimaginable, repellent, abysmal, frightful, heinous, odious, indescribable, loathsome, abominable, ineffable, beyond words, execrable, unutterable, inexpressible, beyond description, hellacious (U.S. slang), too horrible for words the unspeakable horrors of chemical weapons

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

unspeakable

adjective

1. That cannot be described:

incommunicable, indefinable, indescribable, ineffable, inexpressible, undescribable, unutterable.

Idioms: beyond description, defying description.

2. That may not be spoken of or uttered:

unmentionable.

Translations

لا يوصَف، يَعْجَز عنه الوَصْف

nepopsatelnýnevýslovný

ubeskrivelig

unsäglich

indicible inexprimable innommable

ósegjanlegur, ólÿsanlegur

indicibile

neizsakāms

under enhver kritikk

anlatılamaz

说不出口的

unspeakable

[ʌnˈspiːkəbl] ADJ (= terrible) [pain etc] → horrible; (= dreadful) → incalificable

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

unspeakable

[ʌnˈspiːkəb^əl] adj [pain] → indescriptible; [horror, crimes] → innommable; [behaviour, treatment] → inqualifiable

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

unspeakable

adj → unbeschreiblich; their unspeakable trade → ihr abscheuliches Geschäft; to do/say unspeakable things to somebody → jdm unaussprechliche Dinge antun/sagen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

unspeakable

[ʌnˈspiːkəbl] adj (behaviour, crime) → abominevole; (pain, joy) → indicibile, indescrivibile

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

unspeakable

(anˈspiːkəbl) adjective

that cannot be expressed in words, especially because too bad to describe. his unspeakable cruelty/rudeness.

unˈspeakably adverb

The house is unspeakably filthy.

References in classic literature ?

"Then," said the doomed one, "I should just like to remark that you are the most unspeakable old imbecile in seven States and the District of Columbia."

View in context

Many of the graves were sunken, from others grew sturdy pines, whose roots had committed unspeakable sin.

View in context

Their breasts are ever bared To the pitiless steel and all the wounds of war Unspeakable. Methinks I see them now, Dust-mantled in the bitter wind, a host Of Tartar warriors in ambuscade.

View in context

Even at a small party, the company was a pleasure to behold; the richly varied hues of the assembly in a church or theatre are said to have more than once proved too distracting for our greatest teachers and actors; but most ravishing of all is said to have been the unspeakable magnificence of a military review.

View in context

Bursting into an unspeakable frenzy, I was at once going to call upon this villain of a seducer--though what to do next I knew not, seeing that I was fearful of giving you offence.

View in context

His words were echoed with unspeakable astonishment by all but Elinor, who sat with her head leaning over her work, in a state of such agitation as made her hardly know where she was.

View in context

There were exactly states of the air, conditions of sound and of stillness, unspeakable impressions of the KIND of ministering moment, that brought back to me, long enough to catch it, the feeling of the medium in which, that June evening out of doors, I had had my first sight of Quint, and in which, too, at those other instants, I had, after seeing him through the window, looked for him in vain in the circle of shrubbery.

View in context

At this instant, while Daggoo, on the summit of the head, was clearing the whip --which had somehow got foul of the great cutting tackles --a sharp cracking noise was heard; and to the unspeakable horror of all, one of the two enormous hooks suspending the head tore out, and with a vast vibration the enormous mass sideways swung, till the drunk ship reeled and shook as if smitten by an iceberg.

View in context

I suffered unspeakable trouble while I considered and reconsidered whether I should at last dissolve that spell of my childhood, and tell Joe all the story.

View in context

"Oh, unhappy man!" moaned the girl, showing every sign of unspeakable terror.

View in context

And there I sat, chin on knees, the sun beating down upon my head and unspeakable dread in my mind, plotting how I could live on against the hour of my rescue (if ever rescue came).

View in context

Some arrows of scorn that had buried themselves in his heart had generated strange and unspeakable hatred.